1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a device for removing fluids and/or solid substances from a mixture of particle-shaped materials. For example, the device removes fluids and/or solid substances from a mixture of particle-shaped materials with a container which forms a ring-shaped process chamber with a plurality of cells separated from each other by walls, comprising an inlet cell, intermediate cells and an outlet cell, a feeding installation for conveying the mixture to be treated into the inlet cell of the process chamber, a discharge installation for discharging the mixture treated from the outlet cell of the process chamber, a ventilation installation for feeding in a first fluidisation agent, in particular in the form of overheated vapour, from below into the process chamber through an inflow floor for generating a fluidised bed in the process chamber, a heating installation for preparing the first fluidisation agent in the flow direction before the ventilation installation, swirl impellers for conditioning the flow in the container from the process chamber to the heating installation and which in part also leads to a vapour outlet, and a dust removal installation in the flow path between the process chamber and the heating installation, wherein dust can be guided to the outlet cell via the dust removal installation. A device of this type is in particular suitable for drying bulk products and materials from the food and animal feed industry, although other particle-shaped materials or mixtures from them can also be treated with such a device.
2. Description of Related Art
A plurality of devices of the above-named type are known from the prior art, which generally use overheated vapour as a fluidisation agent. These so-called “fluidised bed vaporisation dryers” are used to charge overheated vapour through bulk products or particle-shaped materials from below and to fluidise them, so that a fluidised bed is created. The material to be treated is here transported from an entry cell in which the material to be treated is introduced into the container and the process chamber, via subsequent method cells through to a discharge cell. In the discharge cell, no inflow occurs from below, so that on the lower end of the discharge cell, the material that has been fully treated can be discharged, for example via a discharge screw conveyor. The container is sealed on the discharge end and on the feeding installation by means of a threshold installation in order to be able to allow the processing sequence to run under overpressure. Particles which are carried along by the vapour are separated on the path from the process chamber to a (vapour) outlet using impellers which generate a swirl and a dust removal installation, in order to then guide the vapour which has been freed of dust to the process chamber following renewed heating in a heating installation via an inflow floor. Such installations are known e.g. from EP 1 956 326 B 1, EP 2 146 167 BI, EP 1 070 223 B1, U.S. Pat. No. 5,357,686 and EP 2 457 649 AI.
With the known devices, impermissible material accumulations or lumps may occur in the area of the material charge, which in the worst case can lead to a total failure of the device. In order to remedy a blockage in the process chamber, the device must namely be switched off, rendered pressureless, and cooled down in order to then manually remove the blockage with impellers or similar.